Over the past 40 years, EAS (Electronic Article Surveillance) has become increasingly popular within retail. Various technologies include AM (acousto-magnetic), RF (radio frequency), EM (electro-magnetic) and to an extent, RFID (radio frequency identification). Each EAS technology has strengths and weaknesses associated with the mechanics of the tag and system, and the relevant frequencies of that technology.
Theft has become much more prevalent over the past decade in North America, due to a number of factors. Primarily this is attributable to increased social issues, social economic imbalances, the judicial system and restrictions placed on it, as well as legislation. All these factors have lead to an increase in the prevalence of shoplifting.
To this day, retail grocery in North America use EAS in grocery retail to a very limited extent. This extent is measurable by (1) the number of retail grocers with EAS, and (2) the number of grocers with EAS that do not use it, or use with limited activity.
Organized Retail Crime (ORC) is a term only gathering momentum over the past 10 years. Retail crime has become big business in North America, as the penalties for retail crime are generally lower than other crimes of similar economic benefit.
A common and prevalent way for those with additions issues to obtain drugs is to trade shoplifted merchandise for their next high. When doing so, those trading obtain approximately 40-50 cents on the dollar for their shoplifted items in trade. Groceries make up a significant amount of items targeted for ‘theft for trade’ in the street level drug trade. Due to not only the high value of meat and cheese, the demand, relatively high liquidity of the categorical items (many people consume meat and cheese, not everybody needs size 11 sneakers), but that the price of the item is inherently listed right on the artifact. This allows for a less inhibited transaction of the goods as there is no room for argument establishing the market value of the items. In comparison to razor blades or infant formula (other highly stolen items), there is less debate at the time of trade, as razor blades and formula MSRP will change drastically retailer to retailer.
The other factor causing an increase in the theft of grocery, specifically related to meat and cheese/deli, is the commodity driven pricing of the ‘sku’ (stock keeping unit) price tag. When trading or selling the stolen merchandise, given the thief is ‘fencing’ to a purchaser, the negotiation needs to be both quick as well as non-confrontational as possible. Meat and cheese/deli, support both attribute of speed and non-confrontation, given the SKU label has the price. In other words, there is no argument about the value-pac steaks being $27.54, but how much is this vanilla, this spice assortment. The fact meat, cheese/deli show the price, supports the ‘trade’ of the shoplifter relationship. Hence, the thermal scale label that indicates the SKU information and price, attracts shoplifters to these items for logistical (price illustrating) purposes.